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Melissa Dinwiddie | Create the Impossible™ | Innovation Keynote Speaker & Consultant

Empower your team to innovate on demand. Melissa Dinwiddie helps tech leaders Create the Impossible™ through playful, interactive workshops and keynotes. Unlock breakthrough creativity today.

What I Am, What I Am Not, and Why

Note: If you’re in a hurry, scroll down for time-sensitive info. Just sayin’.

This weekend marked the half-way point in the crucible that is Action Studio. The 36+ cast members inside are all awhirl, heads spinning with new visions of who we are and what our businesses are all about.

I signed up for the 30-day course with the goal of getting clear on my business message and direction. Turns out that was the easy part: two days in, and mission accomplished!

Now comes the hard part of actually implementing that clarity.

Part of that is the long-overdue website overhaul, the new home page design, the reams of re-writing.

But perhaps the hardest part is letting go of some things to make room for others.

What I am not

Inside Action Studio, Sinclair has made space for us to look at not just what we’re really good at, but what we really, really want.

Um, hello. This is what this entire Living A Creative Life endeavor is about! I started this damn blog as part of my quest to re-invent my life, follow my evolving Blisses and create the life I really, really want.

And yet, somehow along the way I got off track. Waylaid by stuff I’m good at, but isn’t really in alignment with my deepest desires.

As Action Studio special guest star Dyana Valentine put it on a call last Wednesday, “Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you have any business doing it.”

Amen.

So, a confession: I am not an art marketing expert.

Nor do I want to be.

Close, but not quite

I created my first “digital offering,” the Thriving Artists Project, because I wanted to learn from other creatives who have built sustainable, thriving businesses from their creative passions.

I wanted to inspire myself, and all creatives, to bust the starving artist mindset once and for all. I knew that providing creatives with role models – people who are already doing what we’ve been told is impossible – would be powerful medicine.

Plus I thought living out my Terry Gross fantasies would be hella fun.

I was right on both counts.

What I didn’t foresee was that creating the Thriving Artists Project would make me feel like I had something to live up to. Like I was supposed to be an expert in art marketing. Like I magically needed to know everything, have all the answers.

Intellectually, I know this is ridiculous. But the feelings were there. I felt… uncomfortable. Like wearing someone else’s clothes that don’t quite fit.

Don’t get me wrong – I love the Thriving Artists Project, and I’m incredibly proud of it. But I’m also clear that what I want to create next is pointed in a slightly different direction.

What I am

As Action Studio guided me deeper into my business archetypes and my most passionate dreams, the shining truth revealed itself:

No, I am not an art marketing expert. I am an inspirationalist.

Brilliant, talented Nutty was the first to call me this, and I’m grateful for her perceptive vision. Sometimes it takes a view through someone else’s eyes to see what’s utterly obvious.

What do people email me all the time to say?

Not “wow, you helped me with my marketing,” but “you inspire me!”

What makes me utterly glow with delight to hear?

Not “I’m making more money thanks to you” (though of course that never sucks!), but “you’ve inspired me to create again!”

What’s the big vision that’s always in front of my eyes?

Of course I want to see all artists thriving, handsomely paid for the value we create. But that’s not my big, big dream.

My big, big dream is that everyone on the planet is connected with their creative source, playing in the Creative Sandbox, living in their fullest joy and sharing that with the world.

That’s what makes my heart leap and my soul sing!

My Big Why

I was fortunate to have amazing opportunities growing up. I got to do music and art in the schools. My parents could afford to give me piano lessons. My grandmother bought me a set of oil paints and taught me how to use them. I had my parents’ permission and support to immerse myself in dance as a teenager, and later even to drop out of UC Berkeley to pursue my dream of dancing at Juilliard in New York.

Even so, even with all of those opportunities, I found myself cut off from my creativity.

Even with a supportive family (who, I later learned, dreamed that I might grow up to be an artist!), I got sucked in by the louder cultural voices that told me that creative expression wasn’t important.

Better I should find the cure for cancer. Or feed the hungry. Or fight for the oppressed.

Even making a lot of money, the voices told me, was more important than feeding my creative soul.

I hate to admit it, but I bought the lie. And though I didn’t grow up to find the cure for cancer, or feed the world, or end oppression, or even make a lot of money (more’s the pity!) – even though I built a business directly from my art – I still found myself disconnected from my creative source.

Life felt stunted. Black and white. Lacking.

The cure was re-connecting with my own creative passion.

I know how powerful and important this was – and continues to be – for me. And I know how hard it can be to maintain.

That is my goal: fanning the flames of creativity wherever I see them.

That’s what I’ll be focusing on here, so join me if you like.

To be continued…

Aforementioned time-sensitive info follows here

Meanwhile, if you’re ready to build a career as an artist, I highly recommend you check out my friend Michele Théberge’s free teleseminar, Five Keys to Success: Creating a Soul-Infused Art Career, happening today.

I met Michele when I interviewed her for the Thriving Artists Project. She inspired the hell out of me (in fact, it was that interview with Michele that got me back to my own daily practice, starting with my 15 minutes a day commitment).

Since then we’ve become friends. I’ve gotten to know Michele and have huge respect for her. She has been a professional artist for over 22 years, with work exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide. She is also a beloved teacher who is passionate about the creative process and inspiring others to commit to their art practice and get their work out in a bigger way.

One thing I know about her is she is extremely generous when it comes to sharing what she knows about being an artist and committed to supporting others.

And she’s doing it for FREE in her teleclass “5 Keys to Success: Creating a Soul-Infused Art Career” TODAY, Wednesday, May 25, at 8 pm EDT/5 pm PDT

Find out more and sign up here: http://bit.ly/jOE2sF

But do it fast, because the teleclass starts in just a few hours!

Full disclosure: I am an affiliate with Michele, which means that if you end up signing up for her Artists Mentorship Program I’ll earn a commission. However, I believe so strongly in what she’s doing that I’d tell you about it even if I weren’t an affiliate. And if you don’t sign up, or if you sign up through some other link, I’ll never know about it anyway. 😉

Hope to see you on the call!

Creative Abundance Requires Courage | Weekly Review #57

So how’m I doing in my quest to re-invent my life, follow my evolving Blisses and create the life I really, really want?

Scene: A dark restaurant. New Orleans. Heart of the French Quarter.

The food was outstanding (accompanied by the lazy ritual of watching filtered water drip through a sugar cube to opalesce a glass of absinthe). The ambiance romantic (we sat side by side and gazed down the bar from inside the three walls of a private booth). The waiter was the right blend of friendly and discreet (and even sported a classic New Orleans accent).

The Bombay Club was a find, but the real reason we ended up there was because in my sweetie’s cursory search on his iPhone for a good dinner spot, it was the first to advertise live jazz.

Last Tuesday night this turned out to be the stylings of vocalist/pianist Amanda Walker, the jewel in the Bombay Club’s ambiance crown.

We tipped her on the way out, but as the door closed behind me I paused.

Creative abundance requires courage

If I didn’t want to live with regret, it was time to screw my courage to the sticking point.

“Just a minute,” I said to my sweetie, and went back inside, heart pounding.

“I’m a singer too,” I told Amanda, who had just finished a song. “We’re visiting from California, and I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your music.”

Thus began a little friendly conversation. A simple thing, but a challenge for this still-sometimes-shy native-introvert.

Creative abundance requires courage.

CDs were exchanged (jazz singers, I’ve found, tend to be a friendly and generous tribe). “Too bad you didn’t tell me earlier,” Amanda said, “I’d have let you sit in.”

Then: “Actually, you can sit in right now if you want.”

90 seconds later I made my New Orleans debut.

To an audience of about six people – plus waitstaff and my sweetie – but hell, I still played New Orleans. And those few minutes are one of my best memories of my first visit there.

All because I took a risk.

Creative abundance requires courage

Every time I post a blog I run the risk of people not liking it, unsubscribing, or worst of all, deciding I’m boring.

Every time I put a piece up for sale or show, or send out my not-quite daily ArtFix newsletter, I run the risk of a negative response, or worse, no response at all.

Every time I get up in front of an audience to sing and make them laugh, I wonder if all the other times were flukes, and this time I’ll fall on my face. Or hear the sound of crickets.

It’s scary shit, this putting-yourself-out-there thing.

But consider the alternative. Do I really want a small life, keeping my gifts entirely to myself? Do you?

The only way to grow, to vibrate at the creative abundance I desire, is to take the risk.

Jump.

When I look back on my life so far, I have no regrets about the times I jumped; only about the times I didn’t.

Creative abundance requires courage

So tell me, what step are you taking today to live your own creative abundance?

Don’t Knock 15 Minutes a Day (or How to Rock Your Creativity YOUR Way)

"Breathe Flow Create Grow" - daily calligraphy art by Melissa Dinwiddie ©2011 | Living A Creative Life

I love what’s happening over at Alison Gresik’s blog. She’s upping her game with a beautifully-redesigned site, focusing her content and her message, and even has a telethon going on right now, in which, instead of money, readers are asked to pledge their time – the amount of time they’ll spend on their art.

It’s a brilliant idea. (And honestly, I wish I’d thought of it!)

“15 minutes a day isn’t enough anymore,” blares the headline of the post announcing the telethon, “You want Hours For Art.”

It’s a bold challenge to creatives to up their own game, and I love it!

And yet.

I’d like to take a moment to quietly defend the concept of 15 Minutes a Day.

First, let me be clear that I am in no way dissing what Alison is doing, which I think is awesome. I am 100% behind getting more artists to put their art at the center of their lives. I’m all about Creative Abundance, after all, and putting your art at the center is what Creative Abundance is all about!

My goal is to see you, me, and ALL creatives really rockin’ our creativity. Hard. Right at the center. Thriving in every possible way from and with our art. ALL DAY doing my creative things is the kind of vision I’m talkin’ about. All day, every day.

But.

What about the sweet and wonderful peeps for whom hours for art feels not just out of reach, but impossible?

Are your goals SMART?

In order to be effective, goals need to be SMART(ER). Here’s a chart from Wikipedia on what that handy acronym stands for, including more commonly accepted terms (“Major Term”) and additional (and sometimes duplicative) “Minor Terms”:

Letter…….
Major Term…….
Minor Terms
S = 


Specific 


Significant, Stretching, Simple 

 

M = 


Measurable 


Meaningful, Motivational, Manageable 

 

A = 


Attainable 


Appropriate, Achievable, Agreed, Assignable, Actionable, Action-oriented, Ambitious, Aligned, Aspirational 

 

R = 


Relevant 


Realistic, Results/Results-focused/Results-oriented, Resourced, Rewarding 

 

T = 


Time-bound 


Time-oriented, Time framed, Timed, Time-based, Timeboxed, Timely, Time-Specific, Timetabled, Time limited, Trackable, Tangible 

 

E = 


Evaluate 


Ethical, Excitable, Enjoyable, Engaging, Ecological 

 

R = 


Reevaluate 


Rewarded, Reassess, Revisit, Recordable, Rewarding, Reaching 

 

In a nutshell, when you set a goal, you want to make sure it’s specific, measurable, ATTAINABLE, relevant and time-bound. And to ensure success, you want to evaluate and re-evaluate your goal over time.

Let’s look at how this applies to committing time to your art/creativity. If you pledge an hour a day, say, before you are truly ready to live up to that commitment – if an hour a day isn’t truly attainable – you’re doomed to fail. And nothing feels suckier or contributes more to stuckness than that.

What’s SMART for me may not be SMART for you

So what about the sweet lovelies who are just plain stuck to begin with? Those who are unable to get themselves to lift their pen, or guitar, or knitting needles, or what-have-you, because they haven’t yet been able to unclog the cloggage in their way?

Gentle, loving treatment is required. Sleuthing to uncover the keys to unblocking, hand-holding, and ideally a partner who will help untangle the knots is what’s needed. Stuck creatives need a challenge that’s just the right level to push them… but not too much… so they can remember and reconnect with their creativity.

A delicate re-introduction is sometimes in order, to give a blocked creative the safety to play with her creativity, without the kind of pressure that might scare it back into hiding.

For the tender creative who is maybe just ready to shyly get re-acquainted with her creative self, 15 minutes a day might be just right.

After a routine, a regular practice, has been solidly established, then a larger commitment may indeed be the next step.

Or not.

The thing about systems (Alison calls them labyrinths, and constructs a really lovely metaphor around the term that I just love) is that in order to work, they must be your systems. One-size-fits-all is never the solution for a creative.

Although I believe a daily practice is foundational, and it’s certainly key for me, you may not be a daily kind of person. And that’s okay.

You may be a one-hour-and-45-minutes-once-a-week person (which, btw, is what 7 days of 15 minutes a day adds up to). And if that works for you, and you’re able to maintain your practice and feel nourished by it and connected to your creativity – great! Go you!

My dirty, little secret

Here’s the thing about my personal 15 Minutes a Day practice:

It’s a lie.

I’ve committed only to 15 minutes a day, but in fact, I spend more more time that that, more often than not.

The way I’m currently working playing in the Creative Sandbox – painting and calligraphing multiple layers on a large, stretched sheet of paper, which I later tear down into several smaller finished pieces – suits my “soft” schedule really well. I may work play for ten or fifteen minutes, putting down a layer, then let the paint or ink dry while I turn to writing, or go to yoga, or do some bookkeeping or data entry, or check email.

An hour later I may take a break from the computer and add another layer. And when that dries, yet another.

In actual fact my art is truly at the centre of my day – interspersed in the middle of everything I do – and yet I only require of myself 15 minutes.

It’s a way of tricking myself. Of taking the pressure off.

If I were to keep track of my weekly Creative Sandbox time, add it up, and commit to that amount of time every week, I guarantee it would put me into a panic. It might even backfire, as nothing chokes me up like the fear of failure.

What works for you?

Now, I’m not in any way telling you that this is how you should work. Not at all. I have a unique situation: working at home, making art that’s easy to do in the same room where I do my other work (ie, I don’t need a steel forge or potter’s wheel or trampoline to do my art). Working on my art in spurts throughout the day is a system I’ve stumbled upon that works quite well for me.

You, my dear, will have to discover or create the systems that work for you.

It may be that you’re ready to commit to great chunks of time, and that a pledge of hours for your art is exactly what you need right now to take you to the next level. To that I say, “Go you!”

But if that’s not where you are, if you need a softer entry or re-entry into this whole Creative Abundance thing, let me assure you with a loving voice that it’s okay. Your way is okay.

Whatever gets you to actually do your art is brilliant and good and right.

So don’t ever sign up for anything that makes you feel pressured.

Pushed, yes, like having hands on your back pushing you up a steep hill kind of pushed.

Encouraged, yes.

Believed in, yes.

And a little nervousness is normal, and not necessarily a bad thing at all. What we’re aiming for here is to get you out of your comfort zone a bit – enough to stretch and grow and build a home for your creativity that’s really awesome – but without even a molecule of the kind of anxiety that would push you in the other direction.

Make sense?

You can do this. You must do this – the Universe is waiting. You don’t have to do it in a way that doesn’t fit, nor should you. And if you’d like a partner to help get you down this path, I’d love to help.

Whether you pledge 15 minutes a day or 15 hours a week, I’m cheering you on all the way.

—

What’s your system? Does it work better for you to officially commit to a smaller goal – even a tiny one – and then over-perform? Or do you rock it out most when you challenge yourself with a really big commitment? Share your reactions in the comments below.

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Behind the Scenes of Making an Independent Music CD – Part 4

Ever wondered what’s involved in making a CD of original music? At the end of 2009 I recorded and self-produced my first “official” release, Online Dating Blues, and here’s a glimpse inside the process. (Originally published 1/18/10 on ketubahdiva.com)

Part Four: Support from Unexpected Corners, and Finally In the Studio!

I’d done my homework: thanks to suggestions from friends I’d met at Music Strategies, the email I sent to my fan base included links to a web page tricked out with PayPal buttons for donations and pre-orders. I have a modicum of html skills, and thankfully PayPal makes it super-easy to make a “buy now” button, even for a non-techie.

I also offered people the option of sending a check, calling me up with a credit card, or giving cash if they preferred (which turned out to be very wise), but I wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to donate on impulse!

Would people contribute? My guitar teacher, Carol McComb, had raised an unbelievable amount for her CD 10 or so years back, but I think her list of (incredibly loyal) students was a lot bigger than my list of fans (about 500 strong), and being a performer with an erratic (to put it mildly) gig schedule, rather than a performer and teacher with multiple ongoing weekly classes, meant that I didn’t have quite the loyal following that she did.

(But then again, with a budget of about one-twentieth of her last CD’s, I didn’t need to raise as much either.)

Still, there was a fair amount of fingernail biting. $2,000-2,500 isn’t enough to bankrupt anyone, but without outside contributions it would certainly be going to debt…

And then there’s The Economy… I knew I wasn’t the only one with a lot less disposable income to play around with these days.. Was my whole idea just completely crazy?

Then lo-and-behold, 52 minutes after sending my email my first contribution rolled in, for 100$! Talk about validation.

Especially validating, and surprising, was that it was from a friend from the calligraphy and book arts world, Carol, who has never seen me perform, and whom I hadn’t seen in more years than I can count.

!

Within 24 hours, I received eight donations and pledges, to the tune of $285. Not a bad start!

******

Now that money was actually coming in, the pressure was on. This CD project was becoming more real! I was going to have to deliver a CD, and one that would, I hoped, satisfy all of my contributors!

My first recording session was scheduled for December 21, and as the date drew nearer and friends left and right were catching colds, I felt as if I were holding my breath, praying that I would stay healthy. I recorded myself singing my songs and playing my guitar and uploaded these “scratch tracks” to a page on my website and sent the link to the guys in the band so they could get a (rough!) idea of what we’d be recording.

Into the studio!

The morning of the 21st I packed up charts of all my songs and drove an hour to my drummer John’s garage studio, Idea Room, in Concord. John spent the next hour setting up mikes and plugging in cables until the tiny space was a tangle of black cable.

With a drum kit, an upright bass, an electric keyboard, music stands, mikes and various large boxes of sound equipment, I had about a 2-foot square space to stand in. The four of us were in a for a long day of very intense work, in very close quarters. And honestly, I can’t imagine much that would be more fun!

After much fussing with cables and computers on John’s part, we all had big (tight!) earphones on, through which we could hear everyone: John’s drums, Doug’s bass, Jake’s keys, and my voice.

We spent a few minutes on sound checks, trying to get the mix right in the earphones, so everyone could hear themselves and each other. After all the sound checks were done I pulled out my charts and we started practicing.

We hadn’t met to rehearse, so this was the first time the guys were playing my songs. Being the consummate professionals that they are, however, they took my ideas and ran with them. Until that moment my songs had mostly lived as ideas in my head. I played them in my living room, but (inexpertly played) acoustic guitar and voice give a completely different feel than a full jazz trio!

I can’t tell you what a delight it was to hear a band bring my music to life!

And the guys had fantastic ideas! It was like being in a creative stew pot, with ideas popping up like dried corn kernels in a hot pan. Over the course of our two studio sessions we worked out intros and endings, where breaks would come in the music, and what kind of groove each song should have.

Doug started playing a “Killer Joe” intro to Online Dating Blues and we all said “let’s use it!”; Jake suggested a straight-8s feel for I Need A Vacation (brilliant); John used brushes to create a mystical, dreamy intro to Geary Street; Jake pumped out a Gospel feel on the keys for Married Men (a hilarious contrast to the content of the song) while Doug created a “overweight marred men in Dockers” solo.

Here’s how the day went:

  • Rehearse a song, work out feel, intros, endings, solos
  • Record the song
  • Assess our performance, make notes of what to change, and record the song again
  • Repeat as needed, until everyone was ready to move on to the next song
  • Start process over with another song

I have to confess that there was no point during our 11+ hours of recording over two Saturdays when everyone was 100% happy with his or her performance! If we’d had unlimited time I suspect we’d still be working on it today (or at least until we all got completely sick of it! A certain amount of perfectionism is the curse of being an artist and wanting your work to be the best it can be).

However, I did not have the budget for unlimited studio time, so (thankfully) we didn’t have that luxury. Instead, we moved on whenever we felt like the song we were working on was “good enough” for the CD.

Understand that with four professional musicians, “good enough” is a difficult determination at best, and a little distance can turn something “awful” into “not bad” or even “pretty damn good – hunh!” Jake was convinced he needed to re-do his solo on one of the songs, but when we reconvened the following week and listened again, he decided it wasn’t as bad as he’d thought.

Musicians’ memories of our own performances are rarely reliable… This truism came back to haunt me in the mixing studio, but more on that next time…

—

Next: Mixing and More

Behind the Scenes of Making an Independent Music CD – Part 3

Ever wondered what’s involved in making a CD of original music? At the end of 2009 I recorded and self-produced my first “official” release, Online Dating Blues, and here’s a glimpse inside the process. (Originally published 12/11/09 on ketubahdiva.com)

Part Three: Scheduling the Sessions and Raising the Money

Once again I was faced with the question of how to produce the CD.

I toyed for awhile with doing a live CD recording concert, reasoning that I perform best for an audience. Plus my radio show was live, and I got a handful of acceptable tracks from that, so surely I could do the same again. Also I could ask for donations in advance and at the door to help cover production costs.

Finding a venue I was happy with, and actually making it happen, though, proved harder than one would think. I was blocked again, though I couldn’t say exactly why.

Weeks went by…

Margo, my voice teacher thought I should “do it right” and hire a professional producer. She’d been working with this guy for months, was impressed with the performances he was getting out of her, and I figured why not at least meet him? Though I expected working with him would be pricey. And would I encounter the same issues I had with the first producer?

All my concerns ended up moot, because somehow, although the producer in question was apparently interested in meeting me, and Margo was willing to make the hour-long drive with me to facilitate an introduction, nothing happened.

Weeks went by, I didn’t follow through, and suddenly I realized holiday shopping season was right around the corner, and damnit, I wanted to get a CD made NOW! No more waiting!

It didn’t have to be professionally produced (no matter what Margo said) – my home-burned radio show CD had proven that! Hell, if it was better than my radio show CD it would be a clear win, and for that all I really needed was a way to record me and my band.

A Cheaper Way to Record…

A year before I’d gotten together with a trio in my drummer’s garage studio (John Lazarus – Idea Room) to rehearse and record “just for fun.” My big goal at the time was to get a recording of my first song, He’s Just Not That Into You, to use as a soundtrack for a video I wanted to make. Now it suddenly occurred to me – DOH! – perhaps the most expedient and cost-effective way to go about this would be to record in John’s studio again.

I shot off an email asking if he and his band, The Big Beat Trio, would be interested and available, and how much they’d charge.

Within a couple of days I had two five-hour recording sessions scheduled (at $30o a pop; $100 for each musician per session), and two mixing/mastering sessions with an engineer John recommended, Nick at Earhythmic Studio, who only charged $50 per song for both mixing and mastering.

(To give you an idea of what a deal this was, $100-200 per song is not uncommon for mastering alone, and mixing is way more involved…)

Great! It may not be Capitol Records, but given my time and budget constraints (did I mention I was broke?), I managed to let my inner perfectionist take a breather and remember my goal to just make this CD better than the last one. Not an impossible task, which also had the added benefit of making a future CD that’s even better than this one seem achievable as well. Baby steps…

Paying For It All…

Wow! Blocks busted! No more paralysis! I was moving forward!

Now, how to pay for this thing..

Although I was doing this on a shoestring ($150 per song is a helluva lot better than $1,000 – see Part 1: Background – but that didn’t include the costs to replicate the actual discs), it was still going to cost more than I had on hand, especially given that this was December, the deepest, darkest depths of cash-flow darkness for my mostly wedding-related art and design business.

My estimates were at least $2,000-2,500.

I had met artists at Music Strategies who had raised CD production money from their fan base, and knew of still others who’d done the same. Earlier this year I randomly sat next to my guitar teacher, Carol McComb, on a flight. I spent the entire time picking her brain about her phenomenally successful fundraising campaign, which brought in something like $40,000 from students, friends and fans. !!!

Carol sent me a copy of her fundraising letter, from the days before everyone used email and paypal. Ah, technology! No stamp-sticking for me: as soon as I’d scheduled the recording sessions I composed an email to my fanbase, using Carol’s letter as a skeleton, asking for their support and offering certain “premiums” for different levels of support.

(I had a lot of fun with this: since my songs are mostly themed around the trials and tribulations of dating, I offered different kinds of  [totally platonic!] dates with me for each of the $100-and-above levels. I wasn’t sure how this would come across, but the comments were all positive – as I’d hoped, people got a good chuckle out of it.)

I accepted pre-orders for $10, and here are the “Executive Producer” contribution levels I offered:

Executive Producer Levels:

$25 – Web Executive Producer
Your name on my website and 2 copies of the CD

$50 – Web&Print Executive Producer
Your name on my website AND in the liner notes, and 3 copies of the CD

$100 – “Coffee Date” Executive Producer
Your name on my website AND in the liner notes, 4 copies of the CD, and a coffee date with me!

$250 – “Lunch Date” Executive Producer
Your name on my website AND in the liner notes, 6 copies of the CD, and a lunch date with me!

$500 – “Drinks Date” Executive Producer
Your name on my website AND in the liner notes, 8 copies of the CD, and a date for drinks with me!

$1000 – “Dinner Date” Executive Producer
Your name on my website AND in the liner notes, 10 copies of the CD, and a date for dinner with me!

I sent the email off and waited to see what would happen…

—

Next: Support from Unexpected Corners, and Finally In the Studio!

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